Archive for the ‘pickup trucks’ Category

Thirteen years after introducing the Gladiator concept, Jeep finally came through on its word to launch a production model. The all-new, Wrangler-based Gladiator is a big deal, not just for Jeep, but for the entire pickup segment. We’ve already talked about the Gladiator numerous times in the last few days, but we’re back with another interesting nugget about the pickup. It’s an easter egg included inside the pickup that pays homage to its production roots.

The long-anticipated Jeep Gladiator, the company’s first pickup truck in 26 years, made its global debut at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. Not surprisingly, Mopar has already created a range of parts and accessories for the truck and showcased them on a Rubicon model. The most important of which include a two-inch lift kit, spray-in bed liner, and a truck bed storage system.

Mopar has been providing parts and accessories for Chrysler and Fiat cars for decades now, and it also helped Jeep develop quite a few concept vehicles. Naturally, the Gladiator had to be included now that Jeep finally offers a pickup truck. Mopar presented 20 products for the Gladiator in Los Angeles, but more are definitely underway. Let’s have a look at what you can order once the Gladiator goes on sale.

A tough pickup truck that we have been dreaming about for ages is finally here. The news of a pickup truck from Jeep’s stable is not new; and by not new, I mean, it’s been doing rounds for almost a decade. Finally, the all-new 2020 Jeep Gladiator has arrived. The wait has been worth it because it is as tough as it can get, and it comes with manual transmission as it should! Put your tongues back in, purists.

The 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show will play host to a hot number of vehicles. Models like the all-new Porsche 992 911 will get most of the attention, but don’t dismiss a show-stopping piece like the Rivian R1T. The all-electric pickup truck comes to us by way of auto tech company Rivian, which started out in 2009 as a firm that developed products and services related to sustainable transportation. Almost a decade since its inception, Rivian finally had something to show for its decade-long plan to introduce an all-electric pickup to the market. Sure, the R1T is new to the all-electric vehicle scene, but it’s making up for lost time with an impressive array of features, none more surprising than a towing capacity that would put a lot of today’s incumbent pickups to shame.

The best full-sized pickups in the market are often those that give you the best of a lot of worlds. It’s not enough for a pickup to look good or boast a luxurious interior. It’s not even enough to have the most powerful engine. A good pickup has all of those things to go with impressive handling and driving qualities, as well as towing and hauling capabilities. Like the image the segment presents as do-it-all vehicles, a good pickup has to, quite literally, do it all. That said, not every pickup can do it as well as some of its contemporaries. There are those that excel in a few things but don’t much up as well in other respects. Then there are those that not only excel at one thing; they excel at everything. On that end, we’ve made a list of the best full-sized pickups in the market today, ranked from last to first.

With winter on the horizon, Ram is gearing up for the season with a new special edition 1500 called the North Edition. The limited-run full-sized pickup is on the receiving end of a slew of upgrades, covering the exterior and interior, as well as the performance capabilities of the pickup. The Ram 1500 North Edition is already on the market. Prices start at $45,890, not including the $1,695 destination fee.

The toughest truck on earth – the Toyota Hilux – received a cool Gazoo Racing rework for Brazil. Introduced at the Sao Paulo Motor Show, the Toyota Hilux Gazoo Racing represents something one may even consider a Ford Ranger Raptor competitor. Yet, aside from being really cool, the Toyota Hilux Gazoo Racing introduces the whole GR brand in Latin America. Introducing it with a popular truck is only expected.

Nope, as I have said numerous times before, we in the U.S. do not have access to the Hilux. Not even to special versions like the Invincible 50 I wrote about only days ago.

After photographs of the new 2020 Jeep Gladiator leaked into the ocean that is the Internet, every single publication started to scrutinize every single piece of information available. Before I get into details of the 2020 Jeep Gladiator, I have to tell you something else. For the past few weeks, the three most important car news that appeared aren’t about cars. One is the leak of the baby Bronco, the other is the Aston Martin DBX, and the third is, well, this one – the Jeep Gladiator. See, we live in a world with fantastic roads that stretch everywhere. So, you can basically drive your sedan, sports car, or wagon (if you really must) everywhere, but you are still choosing SUVs, trucks, and other utility vehicles. The timing for this Jeep pickup truck is probably just on point. The Colorado spruced the segment; the Ranger drizzled it with sparkles, and the Frontier, well, it was there all along. Jeep will join this amazing lineup with its one-ton, mid-size Jeep Gladiator – a new truck that will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

It has recently been confirmed that Jeep will unveil a pickup truck version of the JL Wrangler at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show. Called the Gladiator, according to leaked documents, it will be Jeep’s first pickup truck since 1992. And, needless to say, fans have been clamoring for a Jeep with a bed ever since the Cherokee-based Comanche was discontinued.

The Gladiator name will also make a comeback after no fewer than 47 years, but Jeep built more than two pickups throughout its history. It actually made six of them, and even though they were built under different ownership and names, they’re all iconic in their own right. With Jeep’s first truck in more than two decades underway, we decided it’s the perfect time to look through the company’s history as a pickup manufacturer.

California is facing its deadliest wildfire in history, and so far, 42 people have lost their lives to “Camp Fire. The count would have been much higher if not for good Samaritans like Allyn Pierce. Pierce, a nurse by profession, drove his Toyota Tundra into the flames and evacuated patients from the intensive care unit that he manages. Although he came out unharmed, his Tundra bore the brunt, quite literally. When the Japanese automaker found out about this, it offered to replace his Tundra.

The São Paulo Motor Show in Brazil is always a good place to find interesting models that don’t usually make their way to the U.S. Nissan is known for having a big presence in the event, and this year’s no different. The Japanese automaker brought the Frontier Sentinel Concept — we call it the Navarra here —
to The Land of Drizzle. The Frontier Sentinel is a rescue concept truck is described as “sturdy enough to go on missions in the most extreme and remote areas.” In other words, it would make for a sweet ride in the U.S., provided Nissan makes it production-ready in the first place.

The Chevrolet Silverado ZH2 is a military, heavy-duty version of the popular Silverado pickup truck. Developed by General Motors’ new military defense unit, it’s powered by a next-generation Hydrogen fuel cell and advanced battery systems.

Remember the Chevrolet Colorado ZH2 from 2016? GM Defense just revived the project, but it’s now using the bigger Silverado truck and newer technology. Okay, so it’s just a concept for now, but it could become a full-time military vehicle in the future. More importantly, the tech under the shell could find its way into the fuel-cell production car that GM promised to deliver by 2022. Until that happens, let’s see what this truck is all about.

With Ford introducing the EcoBoost F-150 Raptor, we witnessed the end of an era. The end of the V-8 Raptor era. Some, however, weren’t exactly thrilled with it. At all. People wanted the Raptor V-8. Luckily, thanks to PaxPower, they’ve got it. The Houston-based company took the Ford F-150 V-8, slapped a supercharger to it, installed all OEM 2019 F-150 Raptor parts on it, and called it a deal. It is now up to me to compare the two, although, it seems that PaxPower did not leave me a lot to compare here. The PaxPower Raptor has all the bells and whistles as the real thing – only with far more power and better performance.

Volkswagen wants to start selling a pickup smaller than the Amarok which it plans to call Tarok and which is previewed by this very close to production concept it revealed at 2018 Sao Paulo International Motor Show in Brazil.

The vehicle revealed in Sao Paulo is nearly identical to the production model it previews, and we really expect VW to only operate major changes to the front fascia in its transition from study to series production.

Judging by the fact that its interior is identical to that of the VW Tharu, a China-only SUV related to the Skoda Karoq and Seat Ateca, it’s pretty clear the project is already in the advanced stages of development – there is nothing even remotely concept car-like about the way it looks inside.

The plan is to reportedly just sell it in Brazil, where it would sit below the Amarok in the company’s pickup hierarchy. On the local market, it’d rival models from Fiat and Renault; no plans have been announced to sell it outside Brazil yet, but it seems unlikely VW won’t try to push it in other markets as well.

There are few things in this world as resolutely badass as a hugely capable off-roader pickup truck. These are the machines you want with you when there’s a forest, mountain, or desert between you and your destination. With a go-anywhere attitude and the right stuff to walk the walk, the street-legal off-roader used to be something cobbled together in a shed. Now, you can get one direct from the factory, be it the Colorado ZR2 Bison from Chevrolet, or the F-150 Raptor from Ford.

These purpose-built, highly specialized variants offer tons of good stuff for those who prefer the trail to the street. For example, the Bison was created in collaboration with American Expedition Vehicles (AEV), an aftermarket off-roader company that knows exactly what’s needed when the going gets rough. Then there’s the F-150 Raptor, which Ford developed into a full-blown Baja racer with a license plate. But how do these two stack up against one another? Read on to find out.

Pizza chain Pizza Pie is once again digging into its bag of marketing gimmicks with the introduction of the Toyota Tundra PIE Pro. Built in collaboration with Toyota, the Tundra PIE Pro is, quite seriously, a zero-emission pickup with a robotic pizza-making factory in the truck bed. Unfortunately, the Tundra PIE Pro is nothing but a concept, dashing our hopes and dreams of one day seeing this creation pull up in our homes with a fresh pan of Pizza Hut’s finest.

Hype is building for the upcoming Jeep pickup, the first such model to come from the brand in three decades. We’ve pieced together some of the basics from spy shots and rumors, but now we’re getting a much better handle on what to expect thanks to a recently leaked memo sent to FCA dealers, with the really big news including a confirmation that Jeep will pull the sheets on its new pickup at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show on November 28th!

The much-rumored Wrangler-based pickup truck from Jeep is just around the corner. The utility vehicle that will likely mark the return of the Scrambler name after more 30 years will make its global debut at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show.

When Ken Block unleashed the original Hoonicorn back in 2014, we went just a little bit of crazy. And why not? With an all-carbon widebody paying homage to the ’65 Mustang, a race-spec AWD system, and 845 horsepower from a 410-cube race-spec V-8 with velocity stacks rising more than a foot out of the hood, it was pretty much the perfect machine for grabbing eyeballs on the Internet. Now, Block and the Hoonigan team have once again managed to one-up themselves. The latest is called the Hoonitruck, and it’s bigger, more powerful, and crazier than the original Hoonicorn.

Like the Hoonicorn, the Hoonitruck took about two years to build. This time around though, the machine is “based” on a 1977 Ford F-150. And by based, I mean the Hoonitruck employs the same general shape as the factory pickup. That’s it though, as everything else is custom-built to put on a tire-killing speed show. The Hoonitruck is now headed for a starring role in the tenth iteration of Block’s über-viral Gymkhana video series, but until then, read on for all the details on this wild new smoke factory.

A unique Toyota Tundra showed up at the 2018 SEMA Auto Show with Kevin Costner’s imprints all over it. The Hollywood A-lister hooked up with Toyota to build a custom Tundra Platinum that embraces Costner’s love for adventure and the outdoors. The one-off, custom-built creation is the ultimate adventure truck, fitting for a man whose famous for his love of the outdoors. They don’t make them as rough and tough as Kevin Costner; turns out, Toyota — and Working Complete Customs of McKinney, Texas — was up to the task of giving him a ride that suits his personality.